Shortcomings

this was a reread after i went to a matinee showing this morning so i could flesh out my thoughts for letterboxd.

I had some thoughts on Shortcomings after I finished reading it a month and a half ago, but those thoughts are lost to me now. Here's what I remember. I like Tomine's art style, as always. I have limited exposure to graphic novelists, but Tomine is by far my favorite with his crisp, realistic, detail-driven images. This story had its moments of greatness, but overall, I recall a sense of self-indulgence overshadowing any points the story could've successfully addressed. Shortcomings comes nowhere near the beauty and heartache of Killing and Dying, but it was still a visual treat and a very short read.

Tomine gives off the impression of the upcoming artist who is going to blow my mind one day. This book has a few shortcomings of its own, but the heart is there, the technique is there, and the style is incredibly pleasant. He practically oozes Jaime Hernandez in this book and I'm very excited to watch his style become his own.

I moved from reading Ginger Pye to Shortcomings, a typical book for this generation of young readers. The main character is a miserably unhappy fellow, in his early 20's, who has an awful job and terrible relationships. He alienates his girlfriend and irritates most of the other people in his life. He bungles through his daily life, never feeling joy or even small moments of contentment. The book ends (and this will surprise no one who reads books of this type) with our fellow returning to his pathetic life, sans girlfriend, minus his one friend, hoping that somehow things have changed for the better. Yeah, right.

How did we go from Ginger Pye to Shortcomings? Have people really gone from having lovely lives to living every day on the edge of suicide? Where are all the Ginger Pye books of 2008? Are people really Shortcomings-miserable?